Government outlines more powers for Scotland

PROPOSALS to give Scotland “more powers to create and protect jobs, lift people out of poverty and create a fairer society” have been published.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney has written to Secretary of State for Scotland David Mundell to outline priority areas for further devolution to the Scottish Parliament through the Scotland Bill.

This includes transferring responsibility for corporation tax, capital gains tax, the minimum wage and National Insurance.

John Swinney announced the proposals today

It would also mean more Scottish powers around employment policy and law, including the transfer of employment support programmes, Jobcentre Plus and laws on trades unions and health and safety.

It would also encompass changes to working age benefits and benefits relating to children equal opportunities and equality legislation.

Mr Swinney said: “As a minimum, the Scotland Bill must deliver the spirit and letter of the Smith Agreement in full and we will continue to hold the UK Government account to ensure that happens.

“However, we have always said that the recommendations did not go far enough and fall short of a coherent package of powers to help us grow the economy and lift people out of poverty.

“The Scottish Government believes we should move towards Full Fiscal Autonomy as the best route to fulfil Scotland’s potential.

The proposals we are publishing today show how we could do that, and set out a range of other priorities, short of full fiscal autonomy, that would make a real difference to Scotland’s economy and people.

“Control of business taxes and the minimum wage would boost economic growth by allowing us to provide targeted business incentives in line with Scotland’s competitive strengths and performance.

These measures could boost entrepreneurship, encourage innovation and improve productivity, while tackling in-work poverty and investing in skills.”

1 COMMENT

A “coherent package of powers to help us grow the economy and lift people out of poverty”, Mr Swinney?

Would that be new powers for the same Scottish government that has passed all its old powers to the state which has crushed the economy and held the people down in poverty?

Scottish entrepreneurs don’t have autonomy, fiscal or otherwise, in Scotland because no-one in Scotland gets out from under the misrule of the thin-skinned police state that will countenance no rival, competent leadership of the key economic institutions such as the Scottish universities, banks, legal system etc.

Sure there is an argument that more could be done with full fiscal autonomy, if that included the powers for the Scottish government to manage a Scottish budget deficit, with agreed, limited borrowing and money printing powers.

But when there is no academic freedom and no civil liberties and the police state in Scotland can smash down the doors of private enterprise to take away the means of production, then everything else the government might do with new powers pales into insignificance.

And when the Scottish political class including the SNP is subordinate to the independence of the costumed, jock-boot police state wherein macho managers can call police or lawyers to drive out the most talented Scots off the campus, the workplace or out of the country then everything else is secondary.

Scotland is not a free country, meaning the citizens have no rights nor democratic freedoms but are subjected to tyranny, and until the Scottish government start addressing that number one problem the Scottish economy will flounder.

And it’s not a question of “talking Scotland down”, Mr Swinney. If we the people of Scotland had real personal and economic freedom in our daily lives, I am very confident we could do very well indeed.

What needs talking down are the gangsters who run the UK police state in Scotland and the failure of all Scottish political parties to address the issue and come up with a solution.